Page 10 of Honey Pot

“You say that now,” I shook my head, desperately fighting the selfish monster that wanted to make it about me. “But they’ll love you, and then we’ll never see you again. Dallas isn’t close.”

I knew the distance to Texas down to the inches.

I had spent nearly seven years measuring them with my heartache.

“No,” he agreed, “it’s not.”

It’s one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two miles.

“And Ella?”

“She has her job here.”

“You’re going to leave her?”

You’re going to leave me?I stopped in my tracks with a heaving chest because I couldn’t run and sort through all the thoughts in my head.

“I’m not leaving either of you. Enough,” Arlo barked and stopped, turning around to look at me. He walked back to where I stopped, hunched over with my palms braced against my thighs.

“Going to Dallas sounds like leaving,” I huffed, looking up at him. The attempt failed, and the monster was loose. “What? Is the team not offering you enough money to stay here? I’ll talk to Dad or Silas. Someone has to be able to offer you what you want!”

“Don’t be a brat.” Arlo stomped back toward me. “It’s not about the money. It’s about the experience.”

“This is bullshit. No one just ups and leaves across the country for experience.”

“That’s exactly what they do! Are you listening to yourself? If you want everyone to start treating you like an adult, you have to start acting like one, Cael. Pouting when things change isn’t the correct response.”

“I don’t want things to change,” I confessed. “Aren’t you happy here? With us! This is our family, and you’re leaving for some stupid job?”

I watched as all the pieces clicked into place behind Arlo’s dark eyes.Shit.

He had knitted together the real issue faster than I had, and I walked right into a scolding.

“I’m not your Dad, Cael,” He dropped the tone of his voice. “Ellaisn’tyour Mom.”

“Please keep talking to me like I’m an idiot.” I clenched my jaw and deflected his statement even thought he was right. I was being selfish, acting like a child.

My fingers were itching for release and my heart was racing. Arlo watched on patiently, waiting for me to regulate myself as I counted to ten, bringing myself back to reality. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m figuring out how to regulate without the drugs, and it’s harder than I thought it would be.”

Arlo gave me a sympathetic smile.

“I’m not going to leave you for a job, and she won’t get sick. This will be hard and different, but we aren’t abandoning you.” Arlo had read me like a book, and I hated that it made me feel better when he did.

“Itfeelslike you are.” I chewed on the inside of my mouth to control the tears that threatened at the corners of my eyes.

“I can’t change how you feel. I can only show you that I mean what I say.”

He pressed two fingers to his chest, and I mirrored the gesture even though I was still tripping over the anxiety inside me. Like a cruel joke, every time I finished the race, ten more hurdles were set up for me to jump.

“Besides, I need someone here to handle our girl while I’m in Texas. Do you think you can manage that?” He clapped a hand against my face and took off running again.

“I’m telling her you said ‘handle our girl’ the minute I see her.” I shook my head. She was going to love that.

“Please don’t,” Arlo groaned. “She'll give me the speech, and then I’ll spend my entire weekend groveling.”

“All the more reason.” I picked up my pace, letting my long legs do the work as we circled the path down around the stadium.

Lately, it has been quiet. After the win, all the press died down, leaving only a few reporters who thought they might be able to get an exclusive.

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